Review: The Disaster Artist

With The Disaster Artist, James Franco transforms the tragicomic true-story of aspiring filmmaker and infamous Hollywood outsider Tommy Wiseau — an artist whose passion was as sincere as his methods were questionable — into a celebration of friendship, artistic expression, and dreams pursued against insurmountable odds. Based on Greg Sestero’s best-selling tell-all about the making of Tommy’s cult-classic disasterpiece The Room (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”), The Disaster Artist is a hilarious and welcome reminder that there is more than one way to become a legend — and no limit to what you can achieve when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing.

What We Thought:

The Disaster Artist is one of my favorite films of 2017. You will like it if you like The Room. If you haven’t seen that cult classic you will have no idea what’s happening or the point of the film. If you haven’t seen The Room, why are you seeing The Disaster Artist in the first place?

I’m going to assume you’ve seen The Room and know what this movie is about so I’ll just stick with what I liked about The Disaster Artist. It’s actually the first time I’ve liked Dave Franco in anything. He’s not as good as brother James, but I didn’t think he ruined the movie which usually is my reaction. The character seemed perfect for him and he nailed it.

Speaking of James, James Franco is spot on as Tommy Wiseau. He has the look, the sound, the aloofness that made Tommy so bizarre. You don’t get any answers about Tommy in this movie and I like that. No one has any idea where Tommy is from, how old he is, why he has an accent, how he made his money and Franco plays him perfectly just letting it all roll down his back. He tells people he’s from New Orleans. He lies about his age. Franco does it beautifully.

I wasn’t sure what kind of tone the movie was going to have. Was it going to be mean and just mock Tommy/The Room? Was it going to be a cheap spoof? I’m happy to say it’s genuinely endearing. The actors and filmmakers clearly have a soft spot for The Room and its bizarre popularity and you see that in The Disaster Artist. It’s not mean. It’s not spiteful. It’s not mocking anyone. It’s almost like a love letter to one of the oddest movies ever made.

In The Disaster Artist James Franco proves he can be one of the best actors in the game. He’s weird and does a lot of movies no one wants/watches, but push comes to shove, Franco is a talented actor. His brother Dave shows he’s not as bad as he usually is and maybe there’s some hope he’ll get better. The Room is a personal favorite of mine, I have it on DVD and reference it often. Because of that I had high expectations for The Disaster Artist. I have to say it met and exceeded all those expectations. Easily one of my favorite films of 2017.